June 22, 2012

A closer look

At a casual glance, the leaves of the Twisted-stalk look like those of the False Solomon’s seal, and for years I didn’t look at them any closer. Then in the Spring Creek canyon one day the sky suddenly opened up and the rain came pouring down, giving me only time enough to pop open a small umbrella that I always carry with me and crouch down under it so that it would keep my camera and most of me dry. That put the plant at eye level and I suddenly saw the little blossoms hiding beneath the large leaves and realized that the inadvertent “closer look” had revealed another plant that was new to me.

That’s true. Botanists used to (and probably still do) carry some kind of magnification device and I’ve done it on occasion, but a photo is very useful. I’ve seen new things because of the lens and have learned a lot about things that I’ve seen before without magnification.

That was one of many plants that I’ve seen listed as being native to Montana, Montana is a big state and even though a plant may be native here it might be 600 miles away from me! It was just luck that I ducked down low enough to catch a glimpse of these blossoms. Next time I will know to look for them!

I’m wondering that too! For some reason I’ve seen a lot of flowers for the first time, many more than in the past. Last night I found another one, not rare, and on the lists for this area, but until now I hadn’t seen it. I like the way this is going!

And there we go, in life, thinking we are being punished by having rain come down on our walks when, in reality, we are being shown something better than we would have noticed on our own. Put’s a new perspective on life.

The leaves do look so much like false solomon’s seal, I can see how it would be easy to pass them by without a closer look. What pretty delicate little flowers to be seen when you do take a closer look!